Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 25-27 February 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 10 July 1964 (UK), 26 June 1964 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: acoustic rhythm guitar
George Harrison: acoustic lead guitar, claves
Ringo Starr: bongos
Available on:
A Hard Day's Night
Anthology 1
Along with Things We Said Today and Can't Buy Me Love, And I Love Her was one of Paul McCartney's major contributions to the A Hard Day's Night album.
It was the first ballad I impressed myself with. It's got nice chords in it, 'Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky...' I like the imagery of the stars and the sky. It was a love song really. The 'And' in the title was an important thing. 'And I Love Her,' it came right out of left field, you were right up to speed the minute you heard it. The title comes in the second verse and it doesn't repeat. You would often go to town on the title, but this was almost an aside, 'Oh... and I love you.' It still holds up and George played really good guitar on it. It worked very well.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
And I Love Her was written in the music room in the basement of the house in Wimpole Street, London, which belonged to Jane Asher's parents. Lennon and McCartney wrote many of their mid-period songs together in the room.
And I Love Her is Paul again. I consider it his first Yesterday. You know, the big ballad in A Hard Day's Night. The middle eight, I helped with that.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
It is likely that Asher was the inspiration behind the song. Although John Lennon claimed to have helped with the writing, although it is likely that McCartney composed the majority of it alone.
I'm not sure if John worked on that at all... The middle eight is mine. I would say that John probably helped with the middle eight, but he can't say 'It's mine'. I wrote this on my own. I can actually see Margaret Asher's upstairs drawing room. I remember playing it there, not writing it necessarily.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
And I Love Her was one of the songs featured in The Beatles first film, A Hard Day's Night. The group played it during the 'studio performance' sequence, which was filmed on 31 March 1964 at the Scala Theatre, London.
Although it became one of The Beatles' most admired recordings following its release, the group only performed it once outside Abbey Road. On 14 July 1964 they played it for the BBC's Top Gear radio show. The session took place at Broadcasting House in London, and was first broadcast two days later.
In the studio
The Beatles began recording the song on 25 February 1964. They recorded two takes that day, with a full electric line-up, but it was evidently not the sound they were after. The second take was later released on Anthology 1.
They returned to it the next day, recording 16 takes and changing the song's arrangement as they went along. They weren't happy with the results, however, and it was completed on 27 February in just two takes.
The success of the song owes much to the simplicity of its lyrics, and to the effectiveness of Harrison's acoustic guitar solo, for which the song's key switches from F# minor to G minor. The middle section, meanwhile, came about in the studio, as music publisher Dick James later recalled.
They were laying down the tracks and doing the melody lines of the song And I Love Her. It was a very simple song and quite repetitive. George Martin and I looked at each other and the same thought sparked off in both of our minds. It was proving to be, although plain and a warm and sympathetic song, just too repetitive, with the same phrase of repeating. George Martin told the boys, 'Both Dick and I feel that the song is just lacking the middle. It's too repetitive, and it needs something to break it up.' I think it was John who shouted, 'OK, let's have a tea break', and John and Paul went to the piano and, while Mal Evans was getting tea and some sandwiches, the boys worked at the piano. Within half an hour they wrote, there before our very eyes, a very constructive middle to a very commercial song. Although we know it isn't long, it's only a four bar middle, nevertheless it was just the right ingredients to break up the over repetitive effect of the original melody.
Chart success
And I Love Her was released as a US single on 20 July 1964. Its b-side was If I Fell. It entered the top 40 on 8 August, spent seven weeks inside, and peaked at number 12.
This is a good example for one of the many mistakes Ian MacDonald has in his book (it's a shame that everyone relies on this source, he has done such little research, rather nothing). For the correct instrumentation you have to know how the released version was recorded:
At first they recorded the two basic tracks (at the same time):
1. John's acoustic guitar, Paul's bass and Ringo's bongos
2. Paul's lead vocal, George's claves(!)
Then overdubs were made for the two remaining tracks, these were:
3. Paul's second vocal
4. George's RamÃrez classical lead guitar part
(Ringo couldn't do both, claves and bongos, because they were recorded at the same time).
I think the confusion over the bongos and claves stems from Mark Lewisohn's Sessions book, in which he says (26 Feb 1964): "And I Love Her was quite problematic however. Ringo swapped his drums for bongos and claves midway through the session but the sound was still not quite right." How do you know for sure that the bongos and claves were recorded together, and that George played the latter?
It's possible that Ringo played claves on February 26, but the released version was recorded a day later with George on claves. Source: Walter Everett: "The Beatles as Musicians", he gave a lot of detailed information about the recordings.
George's guitar work here is beautiful.
And I Love Her,...This is my favorite Beatle song! The sheer majestic simplicity and beauty of this song in 'A Hard Days Night' made the movie romantically and poetically memorable for all time! This was the best song on the album and in the movie. The lighting at the end of the video, wow!!
I'm reasonably certain that quote by Dick James refers to the "A love like ours..." bridge, not the key change.